Water Quality Planner / Project Manager IV - Combined Sewer Overflow Planning - Lead
King County
Auburn, WA
Full-time
Project Management
Posted on August 1, 2019
- Summary
WHO MAY APPLY: This position is open to all qualified applicants. Applicants from this recruitment may be considered for other vacancies as they occur.
Clean Water & Beyond
Be part of the "Utility of the Future"
JOB SUMMARY: King County Wastewater Treatment Division (WTD) owns, operates, and maintains 3 regional treatment plants, 2 small local treatment plants, one community septic system, 4 wet weather treatment stations, over 391 miles of regional conveyance pipe, 25 regulator stations, 47 pump station, and 39 combined sewer overflow (CSO) locations. The WTD system serves about 1.7 million people and 34 local agencies over a 424 square mile service area. WTD is facing a challenging future that includes CSO control, aging infrastructure, potential new requirements for improved effluent quality, capacity constraints due to population growth and climate change, and financial constraints.
WTD's CSO control program is under a federal consent decree that requires all CSOs to be controlled by 2030. WTD's CSO control program is nationally recognized for using wet weather treatment systems and green stormwater infrastructure to obtain CSO control. In addition, WTD's regional treatment plants are facing the potential of new regulatory requirements to reduce nitrogen levels in effluent while approaching original design capacities. WTD is updating CSO, treatment plant, and system-wide plans to account for the many challenges ahead. These planning efforts present an exciting opportunity for WTD to potentially redefine its future priorities and strategies for meeting its legal obligations while maximizing water quality benefits.
WTD's Comprehensive Planning Unit is looking for a creative and innovative individual with experience managing capital programs to manage and lead WTD's CSO program planning. This position will provide subject matter expertise, senior-level technical analysis, planning direction, policy development, program management, and strategic guidance. The position will involve making recommendations and decisions on issues that do not have established or clearly defined guidelines, procedures, or policies. This position will lead and coordinate various types of technical, costing, and policy analyses to evaluate technical concepts and to recommend policies, strategies, and projects to WTD management, elected officials, and regulators. This position will work with colleagues throughout WTD, other King County agencies, partner agencies, regulators, community groups, and the public. This position will also provide senior guidance, input, and review to other wastewater system planning efforts, other capital projects, and system operations as needed.
WTD is committed to the principles of equity and social justice. We value diverse perspectives and life experiences in our workforce and are committed to building a culturally diverse and inclusive environment. WTD strives to provide equitable services to residents and businesses across King County.
WORK LOCATION: King Street Center, 201 S. Jackson Street, Seattle, Washington, with travel required to other WTD locations throughout King and South Snohomish County.
WORK SCHEDULE: This full-time, career service position is exempt from the provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act, and is not overtime eligible. The regular workweek is full-time 40 hours, Monday through Friday.
To learn more about the Wastewater Treatment Division click on the below links:
http://www.kingcounty.gov/environment/wtd/About.aspx
http://www.kingcounty.gov/environment/wtd/About/Vision.aspx
https://www.kingcounty.gov/services/environment/wastewater/cso.aspx- Job Duties
The successful candidate will perform the following job duties:
- Manage, guide, and provide senior strategic direction to WTD's CSO control and water quality improvement planning efforts.
- Provide senior technical and strategic input and review to WTD treatment plant capacity and effluent regulatory requirement planning.
- Develop, initiate, and manage projects to address performance, capacity constraints, regulatory requirements, and/or other issues regarding WTD's wastewater facilities.
- Develop, implement, and manage scopes of works, schedules, and budgets for highly complex capital planning projects and/or programs. Report on status of assigned work, measure performance using appropriate tools and techniques, identify and quantify any variances, perform any required corrective actions, and communicate to all stakeholders.
- Procure and administer consultant contracts for complex engineering, environmental, and economic analyses related to wastewater planning and associated stakeholder and public involvement. Develop, oversee, and supervise the preparation of scopes of work, schedules, budgets, contract negotiations, and contract changes, oversee consultant performance, and review and accept consultant deliverables.
- Develop and successfully manage diverse teams that include technical experts from multiple WTD sections and other County agencies. Provide direction to team members making day-to-day decisions regarding tasks, assignments, and conflicts.
- Lead negotiations of interagency or local agreements with other jurisdictions and coordinate on ongoing projects.
- Present to elected officials, WTD management, partner agencies, community groups, and the general public.
- Execute the County's Equity and Social Justice Initiative within the CSO control program.
- Perform other duties as assigned.
Technical Expertise – Provides senior technical leadership and review to staff and consultants regarding analyses of CSO control strategies, green stormwater infrastructure design, and wastewater system hydraulic modeling.
Planning – Accurately scopes out length and difficulty of tasks and projects, sets objective and goals, breaks down work into the process steps, develops schedules and task/people assignments, anticipates and adjusts for problems and roadblocks, measures performance against goals, evaluates results, can effectively manage multiple highly complex projects at the same time as a routine work load.
Building Effective Teams – Blends people into teams when needed, creates strong team morale and spirit, shares wins and successes, fosters open dialogue, lets people finish and be responsible for their work, defines success in terms of the whole team, creates a feeling of belonging in the team.
Interpersonal Savvy – Relates well to all kinds of people – up, down, and sideways, inside and outside the organization, builds appropriate rapport, builds constructive and effective relationships, uses diplomacy and tact, can defuse even high-tension situations comfortably, remains calm under stress, is highly effective in managing conflict.
Informing – Provides the information people need to know to do their jobs and to feel good about being a member of the team, unit, and/or organization, provides individuals information so that they can make accurate decisions, is timely with information.
Strategic Agility – Sees ahead clearly, can anticipate future consequences and trends accurately, has broad knowledge and perspective, is future oriented, can articulately paint credible pictures and visions of possibilities and likelihoods, can create competitive and breakthrough strategies and plans.
The ideal candidate will have the following required experiences, skills, knowledge, and abilities:- A combination of education and experience providing knowledge obtained via a bachelor's degree in an engineering or planning discipline, environmental science or technology, or closely related field.
- Seven to 10 years of increasingly responsible relevant work experience in wastewater conveyance and treatment design and construction, utility planning, environmental review, and/or policy development.
- Advanced knowledge of CSO control techniques, wastewater collection and treatment design and construction, and wastewater utility operations.
- Advanced knowledge of various project management techniques, principles, and practices
- Advanced knowledge of long-term planning processes, practices, and approaches.
- Experience developing and evaluating planning-level engineering conceptual designs, alternatives analyses, benefit/cost analysis, feasibility analyses, environmental risk assessment, literature reviews, sustainability, regulatory requirements, and data statistical analyses to evaluate technical concepts.
- Experience assessing receiving water quality, and stormwater flow control and water quality treatment.
- Demonstrated experience advising staff and making decisions on issues where there may be ambiguity and established procedures and policies may not exist or are not clear. Ability to identify issues needing management attention and input.
- Strong verbal communication skills, including communicating complex technical information to colleagues, senior managers, elected officials, other agencies, contractors, community groups, and the general public in a variety of formal and informal settings.
- Strong written communication skills, including experience as the principle author producing public works and planning documents presenting complex technical information for both technical and non-technical audiences; including skills in outlining, writing, reviewing, and editing for content and readability.
- Demonstrated ability to manage risk, complexity, and uncertainty.
- Experience developing project, programmatic, and policy recommendations that account for a variety of considerations, including but not limited to legal requirements, costs, environmental benefit, technical feasibility, and stakeholder interests.
- Advanced team building, conflict resolution, and negotiation skills to facilitate the effective exchange of information, problem solving, and the ability to use collaborative processes to successfully execute projects involving a diverse group of individuals from a matrix organization.
- Ability to work on multiple projects simultaneously, meeting established deadlines.
- Experience developing approaches for working with regulators regarding complex compliance and regulatory issues.
- Experience interpreting policy guidance, permit requirements, regulations, and laws.
- Experience procuring and managing consultant contracts, including developing scopes of work, schedules, and budgets, as well as overseeing and reporting on consultant performance and ensuring deliverable quality.
- Proficiency using computer applications, including word processing, spreadsheets, databases, and presentation software.
- The ability to perform all job duties.
- Water Quality Planner / Project Manager IV
- A valid Washington State driver's license, or the ability to obtain one within 30 days of hire.
- Master's degree in civil or environmental engineering or closely related field.
- Experience with design and construction of nutrient removal technologies for wastewater treatment systems.
- King County application, http://www.kingcounty.gov/jobs
- Resume
- Cover letter detailing how the applicants meets each of the required and desired competencies, experiences, skills, knowledge, and abilities for position
PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS:
Ability to safely visit various construction sites and wastewater treatment and conveyance facilities.
UNION MEMBERSHIP: This position is represented by the Technical Employee's Association (TEA).
For more information regarding this recruitment, please contact:
Diana Eberly
Senior Human Resource Analyst
206-477-6899
Diana.eberly@kingcounty.gov
King county and the Wastewater Treatment Division values diverse perspectives and life experience and encourage people of all backgrounds to apply, including people of color, women, people with disabilities, and veterans.
King County offers a highly-competitive compensation and benefits package designed to meet the diverse needs of our employees and support our employees' health and well-being. Eligible positions receive the following benefits and have access to the following programs:
- Medical, dental, and vision coverage: King County pays 100% of the premiums for eligible employees and family members
- Life and disability insurance: employees are provided basic coverage and given the opportunity to purchase additional insurance for both the employee and eligible dependents
- Retirement: King County employees are eligible to participate in a pension plan through the Washington State Department of Retirement Systems and a 457(b) deferred-compensation plan
- Transportation program and ORCA transit pass
- 10 paid holidays each year (plus 2 personal holidays)
- Generous vacation and paid sick leave
- Paid parental leave, family and medical leaves, and volunteer leave
- Flexible Spending Account
- Wellness programs
- Onsite gyms and activity centers
- Employee giving program
- Employee assistance programs
- Flexible schedules and telecommuting options, depending on position
- Training and career development programs
This is a general description of the benefits offered to eligible King County employees, and every effort has been made to ensure its accuracy. If any information on this document conflicts with the provisions of a collective bargaining agreement (CBA), the CBA prevails. Also, in the event of any incorrect information in this document, applicable laws, policies, rules, CBAs, or official plan documents will prevail.
NOTE: Benefits for Term Limited Temporary (TLT) or Short Term Temporary (STT) positions, including leave eligibility and/or participation in the pension plan through the Washington State Department of Retirement Systems, will vary based upon the terms and details of the position. Short Term Temporary positions are not eligible for an ORCA transit pass.
For inquiries about the specifics of this position, please contact the recruiter identified on this job posting.